A Saudi man has died from a new respiratory virus related to Sars, bringing to 60 the number of deaths in the kingdom at the centre of the outbreak.

Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said the man died in a Riyadh hospital yesterday.

He was among four newly detected cases, bringing the number to 145 of people who have been infected with the virus in Saudi Arabia since September 2012, according to the ministry.

The new virus is related to Sars - severe acute respiratory syndrome - which killed some 800 people in a global outbreak in 2003. It belongs to a family of viruses that most often causes the common cold.